This is our behavior clip chart. This chart is being used in all classrooms K-5. The wording is different on our charts, but the colors remain the same. In our classroom, each time a student ends the day on pink as a "Super Star Student" they earn a sticker on their clip. When they earn five stickers of the same color, they trade in their clip for the next colored clip.
For more information about this clip chart click HERE.
Another new program that we are doing on the elementary level is "Bucket Fillers", a program that encourages children to fill each other's buckets with good deeds and loving kindness. This is to help promote a school climate of kindness, safety, and repect. Each time a student catches one of his or her classmate showing love and kindness, he/she writes a note and puts it in the bucket. Notes will be read and taken home each Friday.
For more information on "Bucket Fillers" click HERE.
One of our classroom rules is "Be respectful", and one way to foster that atmosphere of respect is to make sure we take turns speaking. For many second graders this can be a challenge. Blurt Alert Tickets are given to those students who talk out of turn and interrupt others while it is their turn to talk. Blurt Alerts will be sent home on a Blurt Alert Bulletin each Friday so that parents can be notified. Parents please sign the Bulletin and return it back to school in your child's S.T.A.R. binder.
For more information on Blurt Alerts click HERE.
When students enter the room upon arrival, they are required to read our Morning Message located on the easel by the front door. Typically it will have a set of directions and a poll or question of the day.
Our classroom rules are universal for elementary students. I have added a pledge for our 2nd grade classroom as well.
We use hand signals in the classroom. I've been using them since I started teaching twelve years ago. It's one of the tips I learned in college during one of my education training courses that has been extremely effective with my students.
Our Math Focus Wall. It centers around calendar time which takes up the first 10-15 minutes of our math time. In those minutes we work on calendar skills, graphing, tallying, place value, counting money, time, and vocabulary.
And finally, the last photograph of our mini-tour is of Julio, our classroom pet. Julio is actually on loan from our guidance counselor who has no room for him in her new office. Julio is a corn snake and is about 2.5 feet in length. The kids have really taken to him, and I'm sure we'll learn plenty about Julio and snakes in general as the school year progresses.
